National Spiritual Assembly

nsa@bahai.org.uk

22 June 2005

Racial & Religious Hatred Bill

Statement by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United Kingdom

It is wholly unacceptable to incite hatred against individuals or groups on grounds of their religious identity or their 

beliefs - just as it is wholly unacceptable to incite hatred on grounds of a person's or group's race. Legislation can 

and does suppress both acts of religious persecution and the attitude of religious intolerance itself. However, to 

eradicate religious intolerance at its root, legislation must be supported by education, beginning in primary school.

Such education should be based on the knowledge that humankind is, in all respects, one family. The study of history

 and culture, if based on the premise of the oneness of humanity, should lead to a growing appreciation of the diverse 

religious traditions. This appreciation will be strengthened by interaction with people of different faiths, if the purpose

 of that interaction is to promote unity. An everyday familiarity with people of different backgrounds will help each

 individual to lift the veil of cultural difference and see beneath it the shared humanity of all the peoples of the world.

The reality is that there is only the one human race. We are a single people, inhabiting the planet Earth, one human family 

bound together in a common destiny, a single entity created from one same substance, obligated to 'be even as one soul.

' Recognition of this reality is the antidote to racism, xenophobia and intolerance in all its forms. It should, accordingly, be the

 guiding principle behind efforts to overcome hatred on grounds of religion or belief.

Concern has been expressed that legislation to outlaw incitement to religious hatred would lead to unjustified restraints on

 freedom of speech.

The Bahá'í community believes that freedom is indeed essential to all expressions of human life. Freedom of thought, freedom 

of expression, freedom of action are among the freedoms which have received the ardent attention of social thinkers across the 

centuries. The resulting outflow of such profound thought has exerted a tremendous liberating influence in the shaping of modern 

society.

From a Bahá'í point of view, the exercise of freedom of speech must necessarily be moderated by a profound appreciation of 

the positive and negative dimensions of freedom, on the one hand, and of speech, on the other. The Bahá'í teachings advocate

 moderation in the exercise of the freedom of speech, as in other aspects of life. Speech is a powerful phenomenon. Its freedom 

is both to be extolled and feared. It calls for an acute exercise of judgement, since both the limitation of speech and the excess of

 it can lead to dire consequences.

Bahá'u'lláh, Prophet-Founder of the Bahá'í Faith, reinforces this understanding by drawing attention to the maxim that, 

"Not everything that a man knoweth can be disclosed, nor can everything that he can disclose be regarded as timely, nor can

 every timely utterance be considered as suited to the capacity of those who hear it."